Grocery retail hiring up slightly for April

Grocery retail employment rebounded in April as the sector saw a minimal gain in jobs after a notable decrease in the previous month.

Amid a downtick in the national unemployment rate, food and beverage retailers added 1,100 jobs for April following a drop of 6,700 jobs for March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday. That compared with increases of 4,500 jobs in February and 1,800 jobs in January.

The total job count for food and beverage stores was virtually flat in April, up only 0.03% to nearly 3.242 million (seasonally adjusted) from almost 3.241 million in March.

Year over year, the grocery retail segment added 62,500 jobs for April, up 2%, compared with 1.8% growth for March, when 57,900 jobs were added. The gain marked the sixth straight month of annual job growth for grocery since a decrease in October.

Warehouse clubs, supercenters and other general merchandise retailers also generated sequential job increases in April, adding 3,700 jobs, about a 0.2% uptick to 2.181 million from 2.177 million in March, when 2,400 jobs were lost, according to BLS data. Year over year for April, the segment was down 62,700 jobs, or 2.8%.

The overall general-merchandise retail category—including department stores—added 4,200 jobs in April, a 0.1% uptick from March but down 2.5% year over year, marking a loss of 81,100 jobs in the sector, BLS data indicated. Department stores added 600 jobs for April, up 0.06% month over month, but the segment lost about 18,200 jobs, a 1.9% decline, on a yearly basis.

Also in the food, drug and mass retail channel, health and personal care stores—including drug stores—had flat month-to-month job growth in April, up just 100 jobs. Still, the segment added 6,300 jobs year over year, a 0.6% increase.

Overall, the retail trade gained 7,700 jobs for April, up 0.05% month over month to 15.536 million after a 19,500-job plunge in March. Annually, the retail sector saw job count rise by 31,700, or 0.2%, for April.

The U.S. unemployment rate stood at 3.4% in April—essentially upholding the same level as in March (3.5%), February (3.6%) and January (3.4%) and slightly down from 3.6% in April 2022. Total nonfarm payroll employment grew by about 253,000 jobs for April, compared with additions of 236,000 jobs in March, 311,000 jobs in February and 517,000 in January. Year over year, the nation added just under 4 million jobs, up 2.6%.

“Both the unemployment rate, at 3.4%, and the number of unemployed persons, at 5.7 million, changed little in April. The unemployment rate has ranged from 3.4% to 3.7% since March 2022,” BLS stated in its report.

Similarly, April’s job gain reflected average monthly job additions over the past half-year.

“Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 253,000 in April, compared with the average monthly gain of 290,000 over the prior six months. In April, employment continued to trend up in professional and business services, health care, leisure and hospitality and social assistance,” according to BLS. “Employment was little changed over the month in other major industries, including construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, information and other services.”